Galcon Fusion – Review

I rarely write game reviews because you can already find such reviews for the Windows ports on other gaming websites.
In fact the only review I wrote was of the game Mystic Mine by a request from the Koonsolo developer Koen Witters.

I was late to write news about Galcon Fusion release so I’ve decided to write a review…
When Galcon Fusion was released for GNU/Linux I thought it was another of those simple games that I will play for 10 minutes and lose interest very quickly – but I was so wrong…
This is one of the most addictive games I have ever played !
After 10 minutes of playing I just had to buy it (and it’s very cheap, just $8.99 this week, original price $9.99).

I’ve tested the game on Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit and heard no sound at all – apparently the developer used the proprietary sound library irrklang which had a bug on 64-bit GNU/Linux systems (the library searches in the wrong directories for alsa).
Fortunately I’ve found a GNU/Linux “Guru” nicked “samus_aran” on the Linux IRC channel at the Freenodes server and got him addicted to the game in no time.
He just had to fix the problem and even supplied us with a code he made (required php5) which worked great.
I’ve uploaded the fixed file to a share server for everyone to use and this problem was fixed.( the thread about the sound problem + fixes ).
An official update was released fixing the GNU/Linux 64-bit sound problem.

When you start the game you have a very simple tutorial which sums up all the basics of gameplay.
In the beginning of each game you start with one (or up to three in MP) planet which generates spaceships at specific rate (each planet has an “production” number, larger planets build spaceships faster).
You have to conquer all enemy planets buy taking neutral planets and building a fleet using many strategies (which come to use with 3 player game, specially in MP).
The first few game difficulties are very easy to beat, but when you reach the Admiral difficulty you have no chance unless you use a specific strategy (which seems to work on 1v1 games very well).

The game has no campaign but it has endless random maps and several play modes like :
Billiards : the planets are always at move, making you consider other tactics every second.
Stealth : Your spaceships become invisible to the enemy and enemies spaceships become invisible to you, making you guess where he attacks next.
Crash : Small map in which all 3 players are close to each other (in single player mode) making it instant action, no time or need to conquer the small neutral planets.-, plus – you are able to crash enemies spaceships in mid-air.
Assassin : each player is assigned a target which he needs to eliminate.
Beast : you start alone and after about 2- seconds all neutral planets become hostile and attack you – you need to conquer them all.
Vacuum : “conquer them all” in specific amount of minutes
3-Way : you now have additional opponent to worry about, let the best “man” win.

But the real jewel is the multiplayer game.
Except the single player modes you also have a new teams mode in which you and your team needs to conquer the other team/s which is a lot of fun, you can send your spaceships to backup your teams planets and arrange attacks with your team and use different tactics for the “common good”.
Still the most popular mode in multiplayer is the “Classic” mode which is conquer all enemies, everyone for himself.
But it’s not as stupid as it might sound, in many occasions one player becomes to powerful and you still need to help your other enemies to conquer the big one, so you will have a chance to win.
Pure strategy, tactics and plots – pure fun !

After a few games you are able to see your online stats and rank (even single player states and rank) and even maybe one day reach the top 10.

Except the sound issue the game had no bugs that I’ve encounter and run very smooth on my machine.
The only complaint I’ve seen on the forums is to add shortcut keys so you could select the % of spaceships faster – but I didn’t see a huge need to this feature.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEuxuspM6e0&hl=en_US&fs=1&]

This game is very fun and I suggest to at least try it – you will get addicted at no time.